LANSING -- The legislature could soon be voting on a measure to boost Michigan's minimum wage to $8.15 after Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville introduced legislation at the end of Thursday's session.

Richardville's legislation would raise the minimum wage effective Sept. 1, blunting the effect of a ballot proposal looking to increase the state's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by repealing the law the proposal seeks to amend and replacing it with a new statute.

Michigan's minimum wage stands at $7.40 an hour now, which is above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.

"I think what he's looking to do is open the discussion in the legislature on this topic," Richardville spokesperson Amber McCann said. "His greater concern was, he feels the ballot initiative may go too far, and in order to make sure we're maintaining some progress with how well the economy is starting to do in Michigan and not derail that, he thinks the legislature wants to go ahead and have a say in how that's determined."

The bill, Senate Bill 934, will also raise the minimum wage for tipped employees from $2.65 per hour to $2.93.

Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) had already introduced a bill to raise the minimum wage to $8.15 an hour, but McCann said Richardville was "more focused on his legislation" than the Jones bill.

The Jones bill would have raised the tipped employee minimum to $2.75 an hour. The ballot proposal would increase the minimum wage for all employees to $10.10 an hour, a move Jones said last month would cripple restaurant owners.

"If the ballot proposal were to pass … that would be devastating to the restaurant industry in Michigan, many businesses would close and many, many jobs would be lost," Jones said.

Richardville's bill is likely to see a vote soon. The Senate is scheduled to stay in Lansing until early June, McCann said, and action on the bill is likely before the legislature takes its summer break.

"I would say the majority leader wants something done before we're out of here," McCann said.